World History of the Dance / Fall 2024

  I  Unit: Post - Modern Era Theme: Post-Modern & Contemporary Dance   Introduction While the term "postmodern" took on a different meaning when used to describe dance, the dance form did take inspiration from the ideologies of the wider postmodern movement, which "sought to deflate what it saw as overly pretentious and ultimately self-serving modernist views of art and the artist" [1] and was, more generally, a departure from modernist ideals.  Lacking stylistic homogeneity, Postmodern dance was discerned mainly by its anti-modern dance sentiments rather than by its dance style. The dance form was a reaction to the compositional and presentational constraints of the preceding generation of modern dancers, hailing the use of everyday movement as valid performance art and advocating for unconventional methods of dance composition.   Lastly, Contemporary dance [2] is a genre that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown...

      I  Unit: Modern Era Theme: Modern and Post-Modern Dance   Introduction Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which includes dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing. Postmodern dance , on the other hand, is a 20th century concert dance form that came into popularity in the early 1960s.   II Learning Objectives   Understand the main characteristics of modern dance Explain relationship between modern and ballet  Gain an awareness of the influence of  other dances of modern Experience dancing three phrases in which the different modern techniques are applied     III Main Lesson   1 Presentations  2   Major Modern Dance Precursors Loie Fuller  (1862 - 1928)   Isadora Duncan   (1877-78 -1927)   Rudolf Laban  .......  (1879-1958)    Mary Wigman   (1886 - 1973)   Harald Kreutzberg (1902 - 196...

    I  Unit: Renaissance Theme: Ballet   Introduction With origin in the Italian Renaissance,  Ballet is a type of performance dance.  From the fifteenth century and later, ballet developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. Since then, ballet has It has become a widespread and highly technical form of dance. Its codified movement vocabulary has served a the foundation for other dance forms.   II Learning Objectives   Understand the main characteristics of ballet technique Explain relationship between ballet and fencing, politics, and performance  Gain an awareness of the influence of  ballet on other dances Experience dancing the five positions of ballet     III Main Lesson  Presentation: Sydney, Hayden, Leah, Shoshana / Hip Hop   1 The Origin of Ballet     Question 1 Why is Catherine de Medici and important historic figure in the Renaissance?     2   From "The Devils...

  I  Unit: Anthology of Spanish Caribbean Ballroom Theme: From Contradanza to Salsa Introduction An anthology is a collection of writings by different writers published together in one book, for instance an anthology of poetry. Borrowing from its original assertion, anthology in our Dance History class refers to a  collection of dances that have a common origin and historic lineage. Today, we will begin with the contradanza   and finish with salsa .   II Learning Objectives   Understand the main characteristics of the Cuban contradanza Explain relationship between the contradanza, the danza, the danzon, the son and salsa  Gain an awareness of the influence that the Age of Enlightenment had on dance Experience dancing the anthology of ballroom dance in the Spanish Caribbean    III Main Lesson 1 Contradanza or Habanera The period of European history extending from about 500 to 1400–1500 ce is traditionally known as the Middle Ages. Th...